Drug dealer who threw stash into garden jailed

News imageWest Mercia Police A man with dark hair and short facial hair, wearing a grey jumper, stands in front of a plain wall in a police custody photo, with the West Mercia Police crest to the top left of the picture.West Mercia Police
Lawrence Cardoso has been sentenced to four and a half years in a young offenders' institution

A drug dealer who threw cocaine and cannabis into a garden in Hereford before hiding from police has been jailed for four and a half years.

Lawrence Cardoso, 20, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Worcester Crown Court, sitting at Hereford, to possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply.

Cardoso was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 months in a young offenders' institution.

He was handed an extra two years for breaching a previous suspended sentence for drug dealing.

Police said that on 3 June, Cardoso was approached by officers at Newton Farm Skate Park about a separate matter.

He ran away and dropped his phone before being seen throwing items, later found to be cocaine and cannabis packaged into street deals, into a garden in Kilpeck Avenue. Police said the phone contained messages showing he was involved in supplying drugs.

He was later found hiding in gardens on Powys Walk and arrested.

Det Con Simon Caine said Cardoso "did not learn his lesson, having ignored his suspended sentence order", which he was given earlier this year.

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